Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

EVENTS

East Haven Mayor Goes Braindead

I wrote recently about the very welcome arrest of four East Haven, CT police officers for violating the civil rights of a priest who videotaped them harassing Latino immigrants. You’re not gonna believe the response of the mayor when asked what, in light of those charges, he was doing for the Latino community in the city. He says, “I might have tacos when I go home.” And then he goes on a long diatribe about eating ethnic food. The reporter is absolutely baffled and actually tries to back him down, and the guy doubles down on the stupid.

What stood out the most for me was, in the midst of Mayor Stupid’s babbling about possibly eating Italian food for dinner and being of Italian descent, his claimed solidarity for the Latino community on account of having occasionally been mistaken for “being of an ethnic background.” For those of you watching at home, “ethnic background”= “non-white.”

I… in this community… have been thought to be, at times… of… an ethnic background…

I got as far as that agonizing sentence and couldn’t listen any more. I don’t know how this guy got elected. But if he gets RE-elected after this fiasco, then we’ll know its the constituents that are brain dead.

When are these idiots going to realize that blatantly inappropriate comments like this are no longer buried in local news?

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I have always felt that when you have a case like those four cops, that the root cause is an atmosphere where such behavior is acceptible, and that atmosphere comes from the top. I believe that if the chief of police , the major and other senior officials set an example of decent behavior you are much less likely to have incidents like what happened in that town (and when it does happen those leaders jump all over it instead of supporting the perpetrators). Clearly this is a case where the mayor, at least, did not set an example of decent behavior.

When are these idiots going to realize that blatantly inappropriate comments like this are no longer buried in local news?

That’s definitely one aspect of the internet I like. And if you’ve gotten enough international internet attention for saying or doing something horrible, some of the locals might get motivated to deal with the problem people.

Of course, one nasty side of it is that I’ve seen some locals defend their idols from being judged by basic moral standards, just because we’re (on average) outsiders.

Oh,my. I made it through the first minute or so. I had to shut it off when he started bumbling about how people have made comments about assuming he is from an “ethnic group.” I have never understood why people would assume that stating “people think I’m a foreigner, too,” can be a carte blanche for expressing whatever racially insensitive thoughts come to mind. IMHO, that sort of argument – “I can’t be racist, some others have assumed I’m from a minority group” – is a more devious permutation of the “black/gay/etc. friend” excuse (“I think all gays should go to prison, but I’m not a bigot, because my friend is gay,” etc.) because the person using such a tactic presents his or her self as a victim, which simply pisses me off for reasons I can’t articulate.

And, aside: how does this man imagine the video could be twisted to make it WORSE?

And: if he were to say he was going to spend time in the Latino community to let them voice their concerns and share their thoughts, and if he actually meant it (“I’m going to spend time with those Latino members of our community who may feel victimized by recent events, and I’m going to talk to them and listen to their concerns so that we can move forward to create a more integrated, accepting community” etc.), then I would have more respect for him. What was he thinking when he went on the taco tangent? Jeez.

Maybe the real culprit here is that brand of elementary school diversity education that consists of trying out each others’ recipes and filling in a coloring sheet for each others’ principal festivals. The Mayor obviously hasn’t moved beyond that stage yet. Very sad…

I have never seen such a basic lack of understanding of a serious issue. Equal rights =/= eating at different restaurants. Unbelievable. If that were true, I’d be the greatest advocate for Tex-Mex relations ever. Peace through guacamole! Salsa for justice!

And tacos are Mexican, and I’d bet the “Latinos” who were abused were Puerto Rican. CT doesn’t have a big Mexican population. Most of the Hispanics are Puerto Rican. So there is probably yet another layer of stupid on top of the stupid.